Live Review

Soulwaxmas – Brixton Academy

• 4th Jan 2011

Some Christmas traditions: Trudging around a shopping centre on a Saturday buying things you don’t need for people you rarely see. Getting angry at everyone else in the shops who is obviously deliberately walking slowly right in front of you. Christmas ‘specials’ of family ‘favourites’ like Only Fools And Horses. Getting angry at the awful Christmas specials of family ‘favourites’ like Only Fools And Horses on constant repeat. Carol singing. Getting angry at carol singers and the dreary carols that are all about mild baby Jesus.

For the last 2 years one of my traditions has been to load up on cheap supermarket strength cider, wear a silly outfit and stand in a theatre in south London while some wonderful Belgian electro has sex with my ears. Sailor hat at the ready (and with hotel room booked – there was to be no repeat of last years fiasco where we sat shivering in Liverpool Street’s Mcdonalds for 4 hours waiting for the first train) off we march into the FREEZING AS FUCK Brixton night to celebrate Soulwaxmas.

It seemed like the night was destined to start badly when we walked into shmindie hangout The Rest Is Noise to stand and stare at the bargirl I fancy when it turned out she had the night off. Having planned an awesome array of naval-based chat up lines, this was not the most auspicious of starts. But I digress.

Walking into Brixton, one thing soon became apparent : the snow was stopping no one tonight. As a rapidly filling Academy finds themselves asking “who am Paul Chambers?”, Chambers himself be asking “why you no dance to my aces choons yo?” “probably because it’s like quarter past 10 ya fule and I ain’t nowhere near ready to throw shapes, despite the aces sounds you make. Plus, you have the same name as matey who twittered about blowing up that airport, and we don’t want to appear to be sympathizers for fear of legal reprisal” “yeh well how’s this” – *plays Yeah Techno! sqweee thwod thowd widdly thwod sqweee, dancing happens*

Chambers walks off and the fairy light curtain onstage pulls back to reveal my four favourite Belgians who aren’t Thomas Vermaelen. Soulwax have been touring the same album for about 27 years now but they’ve got their shtick down to a fine art. Stood in a row and with 4 individual light displays behind them, it’s as close to dance music as drums/guitar/keys/synths has ever gotten. Tonight Soulwax seamlessly tear through KracK and NY Excuse while throwing in nuff bang on new songs to hint that 2011 may be the year I finally stop caning Nite Versions. Obviously the best track is Miserable Girl but there’s a couple of cheeky covers – including Jan Driver’s disgustingly bass-heavy The Rat – and in 45 brief minutes we are done for another year as the curtains fall and Mr Alkan saunters on stage.

Q: What’s better than a set from Erol ‘I am Literally Brilliant at Everything’ Alkan? How about Erol Alkan starting with his widdly Tame Impala remix before inviting BOYS FUCKING NOIZE onstage to tear through the likes of Chems’ Swoon and several of their own ridiculously necessary collabs. Yes. An hour of sounds that can categorically be filed under “phat beetz” – including a newie apparently written that day after Boys Noize had his flight cancelled and got stranded THANK YOU SNOW – flies past and the boys are gone, the fairy light curtain raising again to reveal a massive set of decks and herald the arrival of the main event.

*DISCLAIMER: from this point on everything seemed to be a combination of the most amazing things that have ever happened, so the requisite professional impartiality may be absent from the rest of this ‘review’*

For the unitiated, 2 Many DJs are quite obviously the best dance act on the planet. Apparently that’s not enough for a review so let’s describe it with words. In front of a big screen that animates record covers as the guys deej, there’s enough happening visually without any weird heads or outfits (apart from ours, obviously), but it’s the choice of choons that keeps crowds returning year after year. They’re still starting with their Hey Boy Hey Girl remix, but what better way is there of informing 5000 people they are about to have their pants pulled down? The setlist is more dancey than in previous years – so we get Shinichi Osawa’s Singapore Sling, Mr Oizo’s ubiquitous Positif and Light Years’ banging Sex Education as well as their own howge remix of LCD Soundsystem’s You Wanted A Hit alongside other choice cuts, but there’s time for the crowd pleasers and singalongs- AC/DC’s Shook Me All Night Long and Beethoven’s 5th(!) are particular highlights.

A confetti strewn finale of Wham’s Last Christmas sees the Dewaele boys snarkily raise their eyebrow and say “follow this, Mixhell you punks”. Truth be told, their set is fairly anonymous aside from the neat touch of augmenting their DJ set with a live drummer, and actually repeats a couple of tracks from earlier in the evening. But by now everyone who has stuck around has a face that looks like it’s fighting a losing battle with their own bottom lip. And the hardy stragglers who make it through to 3am are rewarded when the fairy light curtain parts once again to reveal apparently every human inside Brixton Academy who knows how to drum with their own drumkit (alright, about 7 of them). As a “yeh, look how great we all get on with each other on tour” show-off moment goes, it’s second to none as Mixhell, Soulwax and at least one naked guy who I don’t recognise from the entire evening sync-drum-solo their way through Incredible Bongo Band’s Apache. Not particularly festive but a banging end to a truly epic evening. And no-one tried to run off with our sailor hats either.